Chapter 55

Amnon Saxe remained vigilant in the pursuit of the pressure point to make the torture stop and show the way out of Saw Yatha’s cruel mind game.  Katherine Gold lay in a clump near him.

“It’s so hot,” she moaned for the umpteenth time.  She was not wrong.  The temperature had grown unbearable the further the star climbed inside the chamber’s illusion.  In the distance, just beyond the metal tree structure, she could make out what she hoped would be water.  “Why can’t we go over there?  Dip our faces in the coolness?”

“It’s not real,” Amnon said.  His voice was losing its resolve as well.  “You have to keep telling yourself that.  We are not in the desert.  We are in a room filled with clever tricks.  You need to get up and help me find the way out.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“You’ll never know, if you don’t try.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Katherine rolled on her back and stared at the bright sun blazing overhead.  “You’re built for hardship.  I was built for the quiet life.”

Amnon wheeled on her, “I don’t believe that for a moment.  In the time I’ve known you, you have shown to be made of the strongest stone.  If you don’t believe in it, you’re not going to do it.

“I don’t feel strong.  I feel like sleep.”

“Stay with me, Katherine. You came here against your will, right? You didn’t choose this, so will you hold the team back at every turn? How does that help you in the long run? If you’re on the team but dragging everyone down, you lose twice.”

Amnon’s words slashed at Katherine but she was too weary to fight back.  “I’ve see you and Evan together, and if I may be so bold to say, you do the same thing with him.  He’s more of a rogue than I prefer, but I’ll guess it’s because he’s a man of action and has learned it’s better to ask for your forgiveness than to get your permission.  I wish you could have known my parents.  I wish you could have seen how a strong woman becomes stronger when she builds up her husband.  I hope to have that someday myself.  One thing about seeing the two of you is how much more I want a teammate in my wife.  Neither a nag nor a shadow who goes where I go without input.  She must be strong on her own and know how to unite around our common interests and good.  My fear for you, is that you will let your desire to win your way at all costs and it will force you into misery and isolation from everything good in life.”

Amnon went back to his search.  Katherine rolled and turned her back on Amnon.  She didn’t know if she had the strength to cry, but she felt tears run over the bridge of her nose.  She was so tired.  She was tired and she knew Amnon was right.  But she didn’t know how to change.  She’d be been this way forever.  What was that?  Why was she like that?  What made it so hard to trust, especially the people closest to her?

Then, the word came to her: Fear.  But fear of what?  Fear of being alone?  Fear of hardship?  Fear of what?  But if what Amnon said was true, then all of her fearful attempts to protect herself would only lead to the things she was afraid of getting.  Something from Viktor Frankl’s book flashed in her mind.  Something about how he survived a concentration camp by thinking of his wife.  He survived worse than she was in at that moment because he forced himself to recall good moments with her.  Could she think of such memories with Evan?  Would it help at all?

Katherine rolled on her back and searched her memories for good times with Evan Gold. It took a moment. She had to look past the recent events—being hunted on a strange planet, being lied to by him before leaping time and space, and all the sleepless nights he spent out on a case—and finally, she found a memory. She focused on his eyes, how they crinkled at the edges, and felt her face stretch into a smile.  It was one of her favorite features of her husband’s face, but she so rarely saw it anymore.  Was that her fault or was it his?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Saw Yatha booming through the desert.  Katherine opened her eyes.

“If you are hearing this, you have survived the first stage of the challenge,” Saw’s voice said.

“Saw!” Amnon yelled.  “Stop this right now and let us go!”

“For the next stage, let’s have a little fun.”  Three panels of the desert wall were replaced with color blocks, one yellow and two blue.  “Here’s how we play.  You need to find the yellow card before you can go free.  I’ll remove a blue card if you answer my riddle correctly.  Ready?”  The three cards flipped over, revealing red backs, and shuffled their order.

“The more I’m removed, the bigger I grow. The more I’m seen, the less I show. What am I?”

Amnon looked at Katherine, “I’ve never been good at riddles.  Do you know this one?”  Katherine sat up.  She didn’t want to lose to the man in black and she thought she’d heard this one before.  An answer came quickly to her mind, but she needed to test it from a few angles before she said anything.  As her confidence grew, she whispered her guess to Amnon.  He looked at her and she could tell he was testing it for himself.  Amnon shrugged and blurted out, “A lie!”

“Very good,” Saw’s voice responded and one of the cards disappeared.  “Choose now.  If you find the yellow card, you go free.  If you find the blue, you have one more chance to save yourself.”

“There’s no way this isn’t a trap,” Katherine said.

Amnon nodded while staring blankly at the cards.  “Just give your victim enough hope to keep going.”

“Which once are you going to pick?”

He looked at Katherine, “What if I don’t?”

“You mean a stalemate?  How long could that last?”

Amnon shrugged.  “But if we don’t play his game, we can’t lose and he can’t win.”

“I think he could still kill us.”

“I think you’re right, so what do we have to lose by waiting?”

Katherine shrugged.  They both turned to face the screen to see what would come next.  The wait was deafening.  Katherine forced herself to think of Evan free and happy.  She told herself she wanted to see him again, though she didn’t feel like that was remotely possible.  Closing her eyes, she imagined them walking hand in hand down the sidewalks of Athens, Kansas; the air so light and refreshing, the sun warming their skin.  Katherine told herself she wanted that kind of time with Evan again.  She said it to herself over and over.

“Let’s get out of here,” Katherine said.

“Do you have any new ideas?  I’m all out.”

“Assuming it’s a trap…”

“Assumed.”

“… But we could still find the pressure point?”

“We’d have to start all over,” Amnon said.  “I don’t know that we have that much time.”

They both turned back to the cards.  Amnon crossed his arms, and Katherine placed hers on her hips.  That’s when she saw it.  Just at the bottom corner of the right-hand card was a black dot.  It was odd-enough looking on the white desert stone that it caught Katherine’s eye.  She walked up to it.

“What is it?” Amnon said.

“Just going with a hunch.  I have a television at home, and there’s a spot that doesn’t light up.”

“What’s a television?” Amnon asked.

Katherine reached out her finger to touch the black spot.

“Are you sure about this?”

“No,” Katherine said, “but I can’t live in fear if I want to see my husband again, can I?”  She touched the spot and felt an almost imperceptible click.  Instantly, a panel in the floor near the tree slid open.  The two caged animals looked at each other.

“Part of the trap?” Katherine asked.

“Assumed,” Amnon winked, “But nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I’ll go first.”

Katherine nodded and stepped aside, letting Amnon explore the new opening.  There was a staircase leading into a dark pit.  Amnon brought something out of his uniform and folded it in half.  The object emitted a brilliant light.  Amnon descended a few of the stairs until his eyes were level with the chamber’s floor.  He waved Katherine to join him.  She followed his silhouette down the stairs, trying to keep up with her heart that was telling her freedom was just a few more feet away.  Her thoughts were certain that death or worse was the more likely possibility, but she kept returning to the feel of Evan’s hand in hers, the look of contentment in his crinkly eyes, and she continued to take step after step, following Amnon into the unknown.